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25 Nintendo Characters That Are Impossible To Cosplay (But Fans Pulled It Off)

The world of Nintendo has a plethora of bright and colorful characters just begging to be cosplayed. With a beloved company having dozens of game franchises to choose from, they’re one of the first places to look if you’re having a hard time coming up with a cosplay for your next convention. The great thing about most Nintendo characters is that they’re both iconic and, depending on the game, have a fairly simple look. Characters like Mario or the original Link should be relatively easy for any beginner cosplayer to put together. Not only that, but you’ll look nice and ready for whatever event you’re attending!

While there are some swell characters that are perfect for beginners, Nintendo isn’t just full of simple looking designs. There are plenty of people you’d have a hard time cosplaying if you weren’t already practicing your crafting skills ahead of time. When it comes to games like Metroid or Fire Emblem, the designs start to get a little more complex than you’d think. There are even ways you can kick it up a notch by making basic characters, like Princess Daisy or Rosalina, a totally different kind of character by adding new elements that make them more detailed and interesting to look at. Also, there are plenty of characters you probably aren’t even thinking of just because they aren’t quite that popular with their audience. Here are 25 Nintendo cosplays that should have been impossible to pull off, but the fans persisted anyways!

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25/ 25

THE COMPANIONS ROSALINA NEVER THOUGHT SHE NEEDED!

Rosalina herself isn’t the trickiest cosplay in the world, despite being a very beautiful one. However, the friends this cosplayer (in a photo by BlueZero) has are clearly not something you see at every con!

The Bowser Jr. is exceptionally cool and you can tell that the Piranha Plant took a long time to put together. One thing that can sometimes be tricky with cosplay is when it isn’t popular; if you don’t have a blueprint for how something is going to look, making it can be a challenge.

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24/ 25

PRINCESS DAISY IS SO DONE

Are you tired of wearing a simple gown and crown for your everyday Nintendo princess? Fed up with giant turtles stealing you and waiting for a plumber to save you? Consider taking your average character and making them something truly special like Malicious Cosplay did!

Daisy looks ready to take over the kingdom in this take, but what we love the most about this cosplay is the use of iconic Mario elements in order to complete the overall look. It’s extremely original!

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23/ 25

THIS LINK AND HIS BOW ARE SIMPLY INCREDIBLE

In the latest Legend of Zelda game series, we’ve been seeing Link look better and better each time. A lot of this can attribute to the new game systems and technology, but the artists themselves have made his designs so much more than a green shirt and night cap.

Tatasenko Mana Cosplay Rune obviously dug it and not only created a really nice outfit complete with every leather belt, but also made an astounding bow and arrow to go along with it.

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22/ 25

THE ROYAL DAB

We can’t have a Nintendo-themed list and not include the Fire Emblem series. It’s a classic that every fan, especially those into battle strategies, should try to play at least once.

While this photo is certainly humorous, we really appreciate that the cosplayers, including cosplayer Yirico, did a very good job with their costumes. Leo looks so sure of himself standing there; just look at how nice the armor is! We’re sure it took a lot of time putting this together for convention day.

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21/ 25

CAMILLA ALSO LOOKS AMAZING

Speaking of Fire Emblem, we have one character here that can be relatively tricky to pull off. Camilla is an extremely popular character that plenty of people want to cosplay, but she’s surprisingly hard to do.

Like many of the other characters from this game series, she has a lot of body armor that needs to be prepped, not to mention some fabric aspects and a slight headpiece. The hardest part to maintain, however, is definitely the wig. Tumblr user princessrabbits did an excellent job!

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20/ 25

SAMUS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD

When it comes to any difficult cosplay, you know Samus will be somewhere on the list. Plenty of people enjoy cosplaying her when it comes to the zero suit, but if you really want to knock it out of the park, doing a full suit of armor is way cooler.

Samus-Cosplay, a DeviantArt user, was exceptionally impressive; all the armor looks extremely detailed and like she’s ready for battle! We can only imagine how hard it must have been not only to put this piece together, but to also wear it.

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19/ 25

KIRBY SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO DO!

The reason Kirby isn’t as popular for a cosplay is probably because he’s just a giant pink blob (if we’re being honest). If you want to cosplay him, you’re going to have to get really creative.

Blancaliliam did a lot of great things to bring a humanoid version of the lovable character to life. When it comes to doing something like this, especially with a character that has such a simple design, it’s important to add a lot of details to make it more interesting!

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18/ 25

THIS ISABELLE JUST WANTS YOU TO BE THE BEST MAYOR

Everyone loves the mayor’s loyal assistant, and Isabelle has been one of the most popular characters to come out of the Animal Crossing franchise. Her bright and optimistic attitude, along with her loyalty to the villagers, is always something that makes her incredibly endearing.

Afrocosplay, an Amino user, really brought her to life by not only keeping the outfit an exact match to the original, but by also adding some of the animal aspects like the ears and bun. We love how cute this cosplay is!

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17/ 25

IF YOU LOVE ANIMAL CROSSING, YOU'LL LOVE THIS STITCHES

There are dozens of Animal Crossing characters and it’s only natural that some are more popular than others. Stitches may not have the kind of following many of the other animals have, but he certainly got some love from Felicia Dark here!

Since Stitches is a bear that, as the name would suggest, has a fabric theme, the cosplayer has a cute hood that really matches with a fitting orange wig. If you look closely inside the hood, you’ll see the pattern matches the Animal Crossing theme!

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16/ 25

LUCINA HAS JOINED THE BATTLE!

Any fan of Fire Emblem, or even Smash Bros., will know and love Lucina. She’s a classic character! As wonderful as she looks, however, she also comes with some extremely tricky attributes, such as her armor and weapon.

Elehal Cosplay went above and beyond by adding more props to her already perfect ensemble, and both the clothing and armor on this cosplay look amazing! If you’re looking for something easy to do for your next convention, we would highly recommend looking elsewhere.

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15/ 25

VENUSAUR, IS THAT YOU?

Cosplaying Pokémon is a very common thing at conventions; who can resist their favorite childhood fandom and all the bright, colorful monsters that come with it? But, cosplaying a Pokémon can be tricky depending on which one you pick and how you want to do it.

Elizabethrage clearly chose to go with more of a humanoid version and created some iconic looks that tell you exactly which Pokémon she’s dressed as. The parasol was a really nice touch to make it even more recognizable!

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14/ 25

SERIOUSLY THOUGH, THIS IS ALSO AN AMAZING POKÉMON COSPLAY

There are a few ways you can cosplay Pokémon: one would be to do it like the previous cosplayer and make the creature more humanoid, and the other would be to… well, do this.

As humorous as it probably was to see these three friends, posted on Twitter by Mako, running around the convention floor together, we have to imagine some serious thought went into this! It would have surely required some sewing, and certainly some coordination, for them to be all together at the same time.

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13/ 25

WHO KNEW META-KNIGHT WOULD BE A COOL-LOOKING HUMAN?

Meta-Knight has a similar issue like Kirby in that it’s a little difficult to figure out how best to create a cosplay for a round-shaped character. Fortunately, Meta-Knight also has a lot of cool armor that any cosplay fan would love to be able to create.

This cosplayer, sergiospanishninja, decided it would be best to keep most of the original details, including the eyes, in the mask and sword while making the rest of the outfit a little more brushed up in order to fit a human.

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12/ 25

SPLATOON COSPLAYERS REALLY KICK IT UP A NOTCH

Splatoon is an incredibly fun game; it has a simple objective and a lot of bright colorful graphics. It’s perhaps the second part that makes this such a fun game to get cosplay ideas from.

In this cosplay by Hayashi, it looks like they’re having a fun time wearing such bright outfits that are sure to attract the attention of other con-goers. We like that they even added details like the guns themselves and little touches like the paper splats that they can take with them!

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11/ 25

WELL, THAT'S NOT SOMETHING YOU SEE EVERYDAY

Sometimes, you must get creative if you want to stand out from a crowd. After all, every time you’re at a convention, you know there’s going to be at least one other person dressed like a popular character you adore.

These guys, posted on Twitter by Arikuitarou, had the right idea by not being video game characters, but being the console itself instead! We like that they even put the Pokémon characters in between them so it looks like the chosen game one would be playing. Definitely best friend goals!

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10/ 25

TALK ABOUT COUPLE GOALS

When we were talking about Pokémon, we didn’t really think of this! Certainly, the cosplayer on the right is a little more common to see, especially since Pikachu is the poster child for the series.

However, Leoagogo, the snazzy individual on the left, had a whole other set of plans for an outfit. We love that not only is the head a giant Pokéball, but that they decided to dress in an incredibly high-class outfit. We don’t think there’s many people out there thinking of this for a potential costume!

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9/ 25

WE WOULDN'T WANT TO CROSS THIS MII FIGHTER

If we’re talking about Nintendo cosplays that should be hard to pull off, we should almost always include a Mii. Sure, everyone’s Mii is different, but they all share a pretty distinct look that can be relatively hard to pull off.

This Diego the Mii Brawler, by beckybuildscosplays, is honestly amazing. Rather than just putting on makeup and a fake mustache, this cosplayer went all out and created a full head to put on instead! Diego looks like we pulled him right from battle!

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8/ 25

STAR FOX IS ALWAYS A GOOD COSPLAY IDEA

Anytime you have to make a full-blown fur suit, you should be applauded. Stereotypes aside, those kinds of suits are incredibly detailed and very hard to make, and they're certainly not for beginners or the faint of heart.

Star Fox is an iconic character, but he’s not exactly easy to make. Devain, a DeviantArt user, has a really nice, detailed suit that’ll definitely make him stand out, if he doesn’t make you want to cuddle him for looking so soft!

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7/ 25

YOU CAN ALSO TAKE A MORE HUMAN APPROACH TO IT

Of course, you don’t have to put together a full fur suit in order to cosplay a character from the Star Fox series. You can also create a human look that still remains iconic and true to the original character, much like what Leo Camacho did.

It’s always important to add the kind of details you can, though. Sure, Falco doesn’t have a beak anymore, but you can’t tell us that the hairstyle, eye makeup, and tech don’t give him away! He’s clearly recognizable.

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6/ 25

SOMETIMES, PEOPLE TAKE COSPLAY TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL

A lot of “difficult” cosplays that get considered tend to be ones with full sets of armor or really detailed sewing jobs that must have taken forever to complete. But, these aren’t the only kind of cosplays that can be extremely tricky.

The Wii Fit Trainer is a very simple character to do, since you mostly just need the outfit and hairstyle, but you’d also need to paint your body completely white. This not only takes a lot of prepping to make sure the paint will stay, but it should also require a second pair of hands. We're happy Hayley Elise was able to pull this off without those issues!

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5/ 25

DOESN'T HE LOOK FAMILIAR?

Super Smash Bros. fans, rejoice! Most of these characters have been in the Smash Bros. series for the obvious reason that most Nintendo characters are, but with a few exceptions. This means that it can be a little tricky to find a cosplay from the game as everyone already belongs to their own original series.

So, who's the one man that you’ll only ever find in the Smash Bros. games? The announcer himself! We love that Twitter user Nick Michaelson was even able to find a lavender suit, but that giant bowtie brings a smile to our faces.

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4/ 25

THIS WALUIGI LOOKS A LITTLE TOO REAL

We know characters from Mario are typically simple to cosplay, but this Waluigi was exceptionally good! Twinzik Cosplay even went another step by making sure that his nose and ears were a perfect fit for a more realistic interpretation of his character.

Even though Waluigi typically looks disgruntled, this one looks particularly mad about something. Could it be because no one invited him to play Smash Bros. with the rest of the Nintendo group? We would definitely understand if that were the case!

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3/ 25

THIS MASK SELLER MAKES COSPLAY A CROSSOVER

The Happy Mask Salesman from Majora’s Mask is understandably weird in the game. There’s just something about how he only sells masks and that his face doesn’t entirely look real in the first place. Just look at that smile!

However, PokuriMio certainly took the opportunity to make this character come to life. The clothes and perfect bundle he’s carrying are all great parts to this cosplay, but does anyone else find it ironic that he has to wear a mask to get the Mask Salesman’s face just right?

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2/ 25

ANY XENOBLADE FANS?

When it comes to the Nintendo fandom, we don’t really see a lot of love for the Xenoblade Chronicles. It’s certainly a good game that deserves a little more love than it’s been getting from the cosplay community.

We’re just glad that at least DeviantArt user ElaidaandJayLee chose to create something simply marvelous out of the series. What’s great about it is that she added so many little details that really embodied the kind of design most of the games had.

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1/ 25

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE MEGA MAN COSPLAY

Mega Man is just one of those cosplays that can be so tricky to make look good. Even though the character wears armor, he has a very cartoonish, polished look that can make it tricky for cosplayers to replicate his armor. He may not meet the strictest definition of a Nintendo character, but most fans of his got their start playing his games on a Nintendo platform.

But, that clearly didn’t stop Galacticspidey from making him look the best he could! The armor looks like it just came from an actual battle and we love that the arm is actually lighting up. It’s this kind of level everyone wants to get to!